


Did You Make it to the Milky Way to See the Lights all Faded

by dragonnan



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fear, Gen, Memory Related, Movie Reference, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Angst, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 08:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1298470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonnan/pseuds/dragonnan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If anything it was peaceful. All that black filled with stars. This other world. And vicious eel riding aliens. Couldn't forget those. Like literally couldn't forget them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Did You Make it to the Milky Way to See the Lights all Faded

It wasn't the near death thing.

 

Really.

 

Not like that anyway.

 

A little dalliance with almost dying was so three years ago, after all. Less terrifying than, oh, say, having a personalized explosive go BOOM 48 inches from your face. Sharing a bathroom with the Big Guy on enchilada night was more frightening.

 

If anything it was peaceful. All that black filled with stars. This other world. And vicious eel riding aliens. Couldn't forget those. Like literally couldn't forget them.

 

It wasn't the aliens either, though props on the creepy prosthetics.

 

Just...

 

It was just that...

 

When he closed his eyes. And he saw all that black...

 

It was like the cave, but different. Because...

 

He could remember escaping the cave. Could remember the heavy trudge of metal limbs – heaving them across sand that sank under his steps and boiled up between the joints. Could remember fire and watching crates, stamped with his name, catch under the blaze and glow white with the heat. Baking already – weaving liquid shapes melting it all like watercolors. The hammering concussion of that first explosion while he bent under gunfire that quickly died out as the propulsors warmed the soles of his feet and lifted him up and out...

 

And sputtered and died – dropping him down and down...

 

He remembered that. So he wasn't afraid of Afghanistan. Not like that. He knew that was in his past.

 

But... this.

 

He remembered going up. He remembered shooting through that vast rip in the sky – from New York skyline to alien universe populated by Independence Day rejects.

 

He remembered booking them a trip back to hell.

 

And he remembered asking Jarvis to make a call.

 

Shawarma. That was his next working thought. And not a bad one, for all that.

 

He nodded when Fury asked if he was alright. Took a pass on the medical clearance – fuck protocol with a stiff brush. Made a lot of assurances that he was fine. And he _was_ fine.

 

But for the dreams.

 

Dreams of the black blistered with stars.

 

Dreams of that shrinking rip at his back.

 

And dreams of the question, floating through his brain like a string of numbers that didn't quite add up.

 

“ _Are you really... so sure... you escaped?”_

 


End file.
